FACING THE HEAT: Telecom minister A. Raja is in the eye of the storm over the 2G spectrum allocation scam.

The Opposition on Wednesday stalled both Houses of Parliament to demand his resignation and a joint parliamentary committee (JPC) to probe various scams.

With Maharashtra chief minister being shown the door on Tuesday over the Adarsh Housing Society controversy, the heat is now on Raja for his role in the 2G spectrum scam.

Mail Today had reported in its November 3 edition that the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) final report on the 2G scam stated that Raja had caused a loss of Rs 1,76,379 crore (Rs 1.76 lakh crore) loss to the government.

Flashing copies of Mail Today, Opposition members trooped into the well of both the Houses, demanding immediate expulsion of the telecom minister.

The BJP sought to step up the pressure, with party leader Murli Manohar Joshi saying the "stain of the spectrum corruption is going up to the Prime Minister's Office". The Congress, which was quick to take action against its own party's CM, is in a bind over Raja. The party cited coalition dharma for not seeking Raja's resignation.

Congress spokesperson Jayanthi Natarajan parried questions on the spectrum scam and said: "It has been discussed several times. The matter is sub judice. We will wait for the court decision... we will not be able to comment until the court decides the matter," she said.

When asked why the party was not demanding Raja's resignation, she said: "We are in a coalition. We have to follow coalition dharma."

Both the Houses did not take up any business as an unrelenting Opposition stuck to their demand for Raja's dismissal and JPC probes into the corruption scandals, including Adarsh, the Commonwealth Games and the 2G scam.

The government, however, rejected the demand for a JPC probe into the Adarsh scam. Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters outside Parliament that the Centre had "nothing to do (with it)". "Parliament is meant to discuss and debate on issues directly related to government of India... that is the domain of Maharashtra government. There is an assembly. They will deal in whatever manner they want to do," Mukherjee said. On the 2G scam, he said, "We have already instituted an inquiry before the MPs demanded."

When the Rajya Sabha assembled on Wednesday morning, leader of the Opposition Arun Jaitley demanded suspension of question hour to discuss the corruption scandals. "Since the last session, several cases, rather an unprecedented number of corruption cases in high places, has come to notice ... instead of dealing with these issues, the government has decided to belittle them by treating them as inner-party issues, and all institutional mechanisms like the CBI and the CVC are being subverted," Jaitley alleged.

AIADMK leader V. Maitreyan said he had a copy of the CAG report on the 2G spectrum allocation and displayed it along with a copy of the Mail Today.

As Opposition benches continued raising slogans, chairman Hamid Ansari adjourned the House till noon. Though the Upper House reassembled at noon, similar scenes followed and the House was adjourned for the day.

The Lok Sabha also witnessed similar scenes. The NDA and AIADMK members attacked the government over the corruption scandals. The question hour was disrupted and the ruckus continued after the House reassembled at noon.

Later, talking to reporters, senior BJP leader Murli Manohar Joshi demanded that the government should submit the CAG report in Parliament at the earliest.

The DMK circles hinted that a decision on Raja was likely after the Supreme Court takes a final call on the case related to the 2G scam.

The apex court will hear the matter next on Monday. Questioning the slow progress in the case, the court had wondered why the minister still continued in the government.

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